Unemployment in April 2004

May 10, 2004

Both the unemployment rate, 5.6 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, 8.2 million, were essentially unchanged in April. The unemployment rate has been either 5.6 or 5.7 percent since last December.

The number of persons unemployed for 15 weeks or longer declined by 351,000 to a little fewer than 3 million in April. As a fraction of the civilian labor force, persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer fell to 2.0 percent.

The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or longer declined by 188,000 to 1.8 million in April.

The data in this report are from the Current Population Survey. Data in this article are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "The Employment Situation: April 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-818.